Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/191

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French and English fleets below to come up and protect foreign property in our midst from destruction by the enemy. Several <t th<- Yankee steamers have passed up by tin- city, probably to look alter Memphis and other points above. At about II o'clock this morning I was startled, as were the crowd, by the rushing of some citizens through the crowd with an American flag wrapped around them. They took it into an empty room of the ground floor of the police-station, opposite the City Hall, on the corner of Lafayette and St. Charles streets. The crowd at once broke in the windows and soon the Hag was in shreds. I was so fortunate as to secure a piece about an inch square. It seems that early in the morning an American boatload had landed by the mint and had raised their gridiron over the mint. About 10:30 A. M. a posse of our patriotic citizens assembled and pulled the flag down. While they were so doing the Yankees sent three shots at the brave man who had climbed the pole to get the flag. Fortunately he was unhurt, and the flag met with a fate that should attend all Yankee bunting. There are rumors in town that there has been a fight at Yorktown, on the Peninsula, and that we have been whipped, and that Rich- mond is laid in ashes. I don't believe that report. Again, there is circulating a report of a bloody fight at Monterey, in Tennessee, and that we have cut the enemy all to pieces. I pray to God thnt it may be true. However, rumors are so plentiful and frequently so untrue, that we should be slow to believe anything in times like these. The fall of New Orleans is probably a just punishment of her people, for we have been a proud and wicked people. Whom God would exalt he humbleth, and we are being humbled in the dust. May we, as a people, and as a city, come out in the end right side uppermost, and all the better for our present humiliation. God be with us and bless our absent dear ones, who are nobly battling for our rights and theirs. We know that thou wilt not desert a just and righteous cause, but will ever give strength to those who need it, whenever they ac- knowledge thee. We have not done enough for ourselves and God helps those who help themselves. Be glory and honor to his name forever, and may all the nations of the earth be subject to and serve him all the years of their existence.

April 29, 1862. I shall have to commence with what took place on yesterday. There was very little of importance which happened, with the exception that there appeared to be a great deal more 01 excitement than on the day previous. At about 10 A. M. a party of officers came ashore, under a flag of truce, and brought a bar-